Letters (Jun 15, 2016)

As an AVA contributing journalist and a Measure V ballot proponent I would like to personally thank the voters who recognized public safety is more important than a lumber company’s desire to make more money. If tan oak needs to be removed from timberlands I suggest hand crews do the job while providing more employment, rather than one man in a hazmat suit with a bucket of poison. I was touched to receive e-mails the day after the election from folks thanking me for making the county a safer place to live for this and future generations. Thanks again.

Katy Tahja

Comptche

GET PATCHES WALKING AGAIN

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In Orlando, Florida once again a killer using an assault rifle to kill 50 people. Just one more massacre using a weapon which people have no business owning. The blood for these massacres is on the hands of the Supreme Court, Congress, gun manufacturers and the NRA. Members of the NRA should hang their heads in shame for supporting private ownership of assault rifles.

Now I realize for the macho types guns have a phallic symbolism but they should really get a life. Ideally to get a gun license the applicant should have an examination by a psychologist to assure they have the mental stability to own a gun.

The main blame lies with the Supreme Court for failing to understand where their ruling on the Second Amendment would go and Congress for not having the guts to deal with a critical health problem called death by guns. Just how many more innocent people have to die before we can achieve a gunless society?

In peace and Love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

THE ONE BRIGHT SPOT

Editor,

The only bright spot in the election race has been the public enthusiasm for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ “socialist” campaign. It’s a sign of society’s crisis that the Sanders primary campaign has exceeded almost everyone’s initial expectations. To have a major presidential candidate put the blame for society’s economic ills squarely on Wall Street, while calling for national health care, tuition-free college education, a $15 minimum wage and other progressive reforms appears near electrifying next to the tepid half-measures that pass for neoliberal reform in the Obama era.

Mark Harris

San Francisco

THE GREAT UNIFIER

Editor,

As we remember and honor this great sportsman, Muhammad Ali, who really ended up serving as a unifier of humanity, across race, class, gender and ethnicity because of the ideals he stood for and lived—I would like to state that for Pakistanis of my generation who came of age in the 1970s, Muhammad Ali was someone we loved also and importantly because he represented Islam beyond our own parochial borders. And he was dark-skinned, like us.